The World Economic Outlook (WEO) database is created during the biannual WEO exercise,
which begins in January and June of each year and results in the April and September WEO publication.
Selected series from the publication are released on this website on the day of the WEO press conference.

The WEO exercise is coordinated by the World Economic Studies Division in the Research
Department. The projections and analysis contained in the World Economic Outlook are
an integral element of the IMF's ongoing surveillance of economic development and policies in
its
member countries and of the global economic system. The survey of prospects and policies is
the
product of a comprehensive interdepartmental review of world economic developments, which
draws primarily on the information IMF staff gathers through its consultations with member
countries.

WEO projections are prepared by the IMF's country economists on the basis
of internationally consistent assumptions about world economic activity, exchange rates, and
conditions in
international financial and commodity markets. Advanced economies and the largest developing countries which account for 90 percent of world output provide a full set of projections for each WEO exercise. Most smaller countries provide
updates of key variables for each WEO exercise and a full set of projections at the time of the
IMF's regular Article IV consultations with member countries unless world developments necessitate more
frequent updates.

Changes to the Database

September 2005

The country group composites for Savings and Investment are calculated as the sum of the U.S dollar values for the relevant individual countries. This differs from the calculations in the April 2005 and earlier World Economic Outlooks, where the composites were weighted by GDP valued at purchasing power parities (PPPs) as a share of total world GDP.

Madagascar new currency, the ariary replaced the previous currency, the Malagasy franc, on January 1, 2005. One Malagasy franc was valued at 0.2 ariarys.

April 2005

Data for Afghanistan are included.

The base year for time series expressed in index form has been re-indexed to 2000.

El Salvador currency has been changed to dollar.

London interbank offered rate (LIBOR) series are included for Euro area, Japan and the United states.

The purchasing power parity (PPP) weights have been updated to reflect the most up-to-data PPP conversion factor provided by the World Bank.

September 2004
The European Union added 10 new member nations on May 1, 2004, enlarging the group to a total of 25 countries. The new members are Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovak Republic, and Slovenia.

April 2004

The former three-way split of the world (advanced economies, developing
countries, and countries in transition) has been revised to classify countries
into two categories: advanced economies and other emerging market and developing
countries. The analytical groups now comprise all countries from the former
developing and transition groups. See the introduction to the Statistical
Appendix for additional details.

Turkey and Malta are now included in Central and Eastern Europe.

Timor-Leste, Dem. Rep. of is now included in the WEO database.

Current account balance projections are now included for all countries.

The purchasing power parity (PPP) weights have been updated to reflect
the new price surveys using the new benchmark year of 2000. See Box A2 for
additional details.

September 2003
No changes were introduced.

April 2003
Growth and inflation projections for Serbia and Montenegro are included.

September 2002
Growth and inflation projections are included for all countries through 2003.

May 2002
Middle East, Malta, and Turkey is replaced by the title Middle East and Turkey. The country composition remains the same.

December 2001
No changes were introduced.

October 2001

No changes were introduced.

May 2001

Greece is included in the euro area.

Cyprus is included in Advanced Economies. It was previously included in Middle
East and Europe under Developing Countries.

Asia is replaced by the title Developing Asia. There is no difference in the
composition of the group.

Middle East and Europe is replaced by the title Middle East and Turkey. Cyprus is no longer included in the group.

Two new subgroups comprise Countries in Transition. Commonwealth of Independent
States and
Mongolia replaces Trancaucasus and central Asia and the composition of Central
and
Eastern Europe has changed: the group no longer includes Moldova and Ukraine. Please
refer to the
introduction to the Statistical Appendix for details on WEO regional and analytical groups.

Queries about the WEO database should be sent to the e-mail address WEO@IMF.ORG.

Conventions and Data Coverage

This site provides the most frequently requested information from the WEO database consistent
with the data published in the World Economic Outlook.

Please note:

The end dates of country-specific series correspond to those
appearing in the WEO
publication.

Series expressed in index form are based on 2000=100 except for the GDP
deflator which is expressed in the base year of each country's national accounts.

Not all of the data appearing in the WEO publication are disseminated through
this site.

Over time additional data may be released.

Data Conventions

Domestic economy series are expressed in billions of national currency units.

For developing countries, figures for recent years are IMF staff estimates. Data for some
countries are for fiscal years.

For a number of central and eastern European and CIS countries data refer to real net material product (NMP)
or are estimates based on NMP. For many countries, figures for recent years are IMF staff
estimates. The figures should be interpreted only as indicative of broad orders of magnitude
because reliable, comparable data are not generally available. In particular, the growth of output
of new private enterprises or of the informal economy is not fully reflected in the recent
figures.

Group aggregates are available in growth rate form only because aggregates
are created from percent changes rather than levels.

Data for Australia, Austria, Canada, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Japan, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States are based on chain-weighted methodology. However, data before 1988 (Austria), 1991 (Germany), 1995 (Greece), 1997 (Ireland), 1994 (Japan), 1995 (Luxembourg), 2001 (Netherlands), 1987 (New Zealand), 1995 (Portugal), and 2000 (Spain) are based on unrevised national accounts and subject to revision in the future.

The percent changes in 2002 for Cameroon are calculated over a period of 18 months, reflecting a change in the fiscal year cycle (from July-June to January-December).

Gross Domestic Product, Current Prices (national currency)
GDP is expressed in billions of national currency units.

Gross Domestic Product, Current Prices (U.S. dollars)
Values are based upon GDP in national currency and the exchange rate
projections provided by country economists for the group of other emerging market and developing countries.
Exchanges rates for advanced economies are established in the WEO assumptions for each
WEO exercise.

Per Capita Gross Domestic Product, Constant Prices (national currency per person)
GDP is expressed in constant national currency per person. Data are derived by dividing
constant price GDP by total population.

Please note:

Data for Australia, Austria, Canada, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Japan, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States are based on chain-weighted methodology. However, data before 1988 (Austria), 1991 (Germany), 1995 (Greece), 1997 (Ireland), 1994 (Japan), 1995 (Luxembourg), 2001 (Netherlands), 1987 (New Zealand), 1995 (Portugal), and 2000 (Spain) are based on unrevised national accounts and subject to revision in the future.

Per Capita Gross Domestic Product, Current Prices (national currency per person)
GDP is expressed in current national currency per person. Data are derived by dividing current price GDP by total population.

Per Capita Gross Domestic Product, Current Prices (U.S. dollars per person)
GDP is expressed in current U.S. dollars per person. Data are derived by first converting GDP in
national currency to U.S. dollars and then dividing it by total population.

GDP Deflator (index and annual percent change)
The GDP deflator is derived by dividing current price GDP by constant price GDP and is considered to be an alternate
measure of inflation.

Please note:

Data are expressed in the base year of each country's national accounts. Please refer to the country information file for details.

Output Gap (ratio to potential GDP)
Output gaps for advanced economies are calculated as actual GDP less potential GDP as a percent of potential GDP.
Estimates of output gaps are subject to a significant margin of uncertainty. For a discussion of
approaches to calculating potential output, see Paula R. De Masi, "IMF Estimates of
Potential Output: Theory and Practice," in Staff Studies for the World Economic
Outlook (Washington: IMF, December 1997), pp. 40-46.

Please note:

Data through 1991 apply to west Germany only.

Data for Australia, Austria, Canada, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Japan, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States are based on chain-weighted methodology. However, data before 1988 (Austria), 1991 (Germany), 1995 (Greece), 1997 (Ireland), 1994 (Japan), 1995 (Luxembourg), 2001 (Netherlands), 1987 (New Zealand), 1995 (Portugal), and 2000 (Spain) are based on unrevised national accounts and subject to revision in the future.

Savings and Investment (percent of GDP)

Data are based on individual countries' national accounts statistics. For many countries, the estimates of national saving are built up from national accounts data on gross domestic investment and from balance of payments-based data on net foreign investment.

Please note:

The country group composites are calculated as the sum of the U.S dollar values for the relevant individual countries.

GDP Based on Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) Valuation of Country GDP (U.S. dollars, shares of world total, per capita, and implied exchange rates)
These data form the basis for the country weights used to generate the World Economic
Outlook country group composites for the domestic economy.
Please note:

The IMF is not a primary source for purchasing power parity (PPP) data. WEO weights
have been created from primary sources and are used solely for purposes of generating country
group composites. For primary source information, please refer to one of the following sources:
the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the World Bank, or the Penn
World Tables.

Inflation (consumer prices; index and annual percent change)
Data for inflation are averages for the year, not end-of-period data. The index is based on 2000=100.

Please note:

For many developing countries, figures for recent years are IMF staff estimates. Data for
some countries are for fiscal years.

For many central and eastern European and CIS countries, inflation for the earlier years is measured on the basis of a
retail price index. Consumer price indices with a broader and more up-to-date coverage are
typically used for more recent years.

Euro area countries and the United Kingdom: data are based on Eurostat's harmonized index of consumer prices.

New Zealand: excluding interest rate components.

Netherlands: In 2006, as a statistical effect, the introduction of a new health care system will lower Harmonized Index of Consumer Price (HICP) inflation by 4 percentage points (but only in that year) as private health expenditures drop out of the consumption basket; otherwise, inflation would be positive.

Unemployment Rate (percent)
Please note:

United States: the projections have been adjusted to reflect the survey techniques adopted by the US. Bureau of Labor Statistics in January 1994.

General Government Fiscal Balances (national currency and ratio to GDP)
Data are on a national income accounts basis. Please refer to Box A1 in the World Economic Outlook for a summary
of the policy assumptions underlying the projections.

Please note:

Australia: Cash basis, underlying balance.

Austria: based on ESA95 methodology, according to which swap income is not included.

France: data are adjusted for valuation changes of the foreign exchange stabilization fund.

Ireland: data include the impact of discharging future pension liabilities of the formerly state-owned telecommunications company at a cost of 1.8 percent of GDP in 1999.

Korea: data cover the consolidated central government including the social security funds but excluding privatization.

New Zealand: data include balance of state-owned enterprises but exclude privatization proceeds.

General Government Structural Balances (national currency and ratio to potential GDP)
Data are on a national income accounts basis. The structural budget position is defined as the
actual budget deficit (or surplus) less the effects of cyclical deviations of output from potential
output. Because of the margin of uncertainty that attaches to estimates of cyclical gaps and to tax
and expenditure elasticities with respect to national income, indicators of structural budget
positions should be interpreted as broad orders of magnitude. Moreover, it is important to note
that changes in structural budget balances are not necessarily attributable to policy changes but
may reflect the built-in momentum of existing expenditure programs. In the period beyond that
for which specific consolidation programs exist, it is assumed that the structural deficit remains
unchanged.

Data exclude one-off receipts from the sale of mobile telephone licenses equivalent to 2.5 percent of GDP in 2000 for Germany,
0.1 percent of GDP in 2001 and 2002 for France, 1.2 percent of GDP in 2000 for Italy, 2.4 percent of GDP in 2000 for the United Kingdom,
0.1 percent of GDP in 2000 for Spain, 0.7 percent of GDP in 2000 for the Netherlands, 0.2 percent of GDP in 2001 for Belgium, and 0.4 percent
of GDP in 2000 for Austria, 0.3 percent of GDP in 2000 for Portugal, and 0.2 percent of GDP in 2002 for Ireland. Also excludes one-off receipts
from asset sales sizable asset transactions, in particular 0.5 percent of GDP for France in 2005.

Germany: beginning in 1995, the debt and debt-service obligations of the Treuhandanstalt (and of various other agencies) were taken over by general government. This debt is equivalent to 8 percent of GDP, and the associated debt service, to ½ to 1 percent of GDP.

New Zealand: data include balance of state-owned enterprises, but exclude privatization proceeds.

Norway: data exclude oil.

General Government Gross and Net Debt (national currency and ratio to GDP)
Government net debt comprises the stock (at year-end) of all government gross liabilities (both to residents and nonresidents) minus all
government assets (domestic as well as foreign). Gross debt includes government assets. To avoid double counting, the data
are based on a consolidated account (eliminating liabilities and assets between components of the government, such as
budgetary units and social security funds). Net debt of the general government should reflect a consolidated account of central government plus
state, provincial, or local governments.

Because of data limitations, "other private capital flows, net" may include some official flows.

The sum of the current account balance, net private capital flows, net official flows, and the change in reserves equals, with the opposite sign,
the sum of the capital and financial account and errors and omissions.

"Emerging Asia" includes Hong Kong SAR, Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan Province of China. Excluding the effects of the recapitalization of two large banks in China with foreign reserves of the Bank of China.

"Middle East" includes Israel.

Russia : historical data have been revised, reflecting cumulative data revisions and the resolution of a number of data interpretation issues.

Emerging Asia: “private capital flows, net” excludes the effects of the recapitalization of two large commercial banks in China with foreign reserves of the Bank of China (US$45 billion), net private capital flows to emerging Asia in 2003 were US$107.0 billion while other private capital flows net to the region amounted to US$35.0 billion.

External Debt and Debt Service (U.S. dollars, percent of U.S. dollar GDP, and percent of U.S. dollar exports of goods and services)
External debt data are expressed in billions of US dollars and reflect total external debt at year end for the group of other emerging market and developing countries only.
External debt data are not collected for advanced economies.

Current Account Balance (U.S. dollars and percent of U.S. dollar GDP)
Balance of payments data are based upon the methodology of the 5th edition of the International Monetary Fund's
Balance of Payments Manual (1993). Data for the world total reflects errors, omissions, and asymmetries in balance of
payments statistics on current account, as well as the exclusion of data for international organizations and a limited number
of countries. Calculated as the sum of the balance of individual countries.

Please note:

Euro area: calculated as the sum of the balances of individual euro area countries.

Trade Volumes and Terms of Trade (annual percent change)
Trade volume series represent trade values deflated by the unit value in order to obtain constant price data. Terms of trade series are
derived from the export unit value divided by the import unit value. The base year of the underlying data is 2000.

Average petroleum spot price (APSP)

The APSP denotes an equally weighted average of three crude oil spot prices—West Texas Intermediate (“WTI”), Dated Brent (“Brent”), and Dubai Fateh (“Dubai”). The prices of these crude oils tend to move together according to the inequality WTI > Brent > Dubai. Their price differentials reflect differences in American Petroleum Institute (API) measure of gravity, sulfur content, and overall weight. The WTI spot price refers to the physical delivery price for a barrel of WTI deliverable to Cushing, Oklahoma. The WTI price is frequently mentioned in the financial press, and is often described as the “headline” oil price. The Brent spot price is the physical delivery price for a barrel of either Dated Brent (UK), Forties (Norway), or Oseberg (Norway) to Sullom Voe, United Kingdom (in the Shetland Islands). The Dubai Fateh spot price refers to the physical price for a barrel of Dubai Fateh deliverable in the Arabian Gulf at Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR, percent)

Please note:

Six-month rate for the United States and Japan. Three-month rate for the euro area.

Country Information

This file provides information gathered from IMF country staff on each country's currency and base year of the national accounts as well as the IMF and ISO country
codes.

WEO Groups and Aggregates

The World Economic Outlook divides the world into two major country groups: advanced economies, and other emerging market and developing countries. Rather than being based on strict criteria, economic or otherwise, this classification
has evolved over time with the objective of facilitating analysis by providing a reasonably meaningful organization of data.
A few countries are presently not included in these groups, either because they are not IMF members, and their economies are not
monitored by the IMF, or because databases have not yet been compiled. Cuba and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea are
examples of countries that are not IMF members, whereas San Marino, among the advanced economies, and Aruba, among the developing countries, are examples of economies for which databases have not been completed. A complete list of the composition of the Groups is available.

WEO Group Aggregates

Composite data for country groups in the World Economic Outlook are either sums or weighted averages of data for individual countries.
Unless otherwise indicated, multiyear averages of growth rates are expressed as compound annual rates of change. Arithmetically
weighted averages are used for all data except inflation and money growth for the developing and transition country groups, for which
geometric averages are used. The following conventions apply:

Country group composites for exchange rates, interest rates, and the growth rates of monetary aggregates are weighted by GDP
converted to U.S. dollars at market exchange rates (averaged over the preceding three years) as a share of group GDP.

Composites for other data relating to the domestic economy, whether growth
rates or ratios, are weighted by GDP valued at purchasing power parities (PPPs)
as a share of total world or group GDP.

Composites for data relating to the domestic economy for the euro area (12
member countries throughout the entire period unless otherwise noted) are aggregates
of national source data using weights based on 1995 ECU exchange rates.

Composite unemployment rates and employment growth are weighted by labor
force as a share of group labor force.

Composites relating to the external economy are sums of individual country data after conversion to U.S. dollars at the average
market exchange rates in the years indicated for balance of payments data and at end-of-year market exchange rates for debt
denominated in currency other than U.S. dollars. Composites of changes in foreign trade volumes and prices, however, are
arithmetic averages of percentage changes for individual countries weighted by the U.S. dollar value of exports or imports as a
share of total world or group exports or imports (in the preceding year).
For addition detail about each of the series available please refer to Conventions and Data Coverage.

Differences Between the World Economic Outlook Database and International Financial
Statistics

The data appearing in the World Economic Outlook are provided to the Research
Department at the time of the WEO exercise, not on a continual basis. The historical data and
projections are based upon the information gathered by the IMF country economists in the
context of their missions and ongoing analysis of the evolving situation in member countries;
projections are staff estimates. The data published in the Statistics Department’s
International Financial Statistics are gathered as part of an ongoing
data collection effort in which member country statistical agencies provide public statistics to the
IMF. Because of differences in data collection techniques, methodological issues, focus, and
timing, the data in International Financial Statistics and the World Economic
Outlook may differ.